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Once Upon A Time In America
Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. It chronicles the lives ofJewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City's world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, and the rise of mobsters in American society. Leone adapted the story from the novel The Hoods, written by Harry Grey, while filming Once Upon a Time in the West. The film went through various casting changes and production issues before filming began in 1982. The original version by the director was 269 minutes (4 hours and 29 minutes) long, but when the film premièred out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, Leone had cut it down to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes) to appease the distributors. This was the version that was to be shown in European cinemas. However, for the US release on June 1, 1984, Once Upon a Time in America was edited down even further to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes) by the studio and against the director's wishes. In this short version, the flashback narrative was also changed, by re-editing the scenes in chronological order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made another film before his death in 1989. In March 2011, it was announced that the original 269 minutes version was to be re-created by a film lab in Italy under the supervision of Leone's children, who have acquired the Italian distribution rights, and the film's original sound editor, Fausto Ancillai, for a premiere in 2012 at either the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival. The new restoration of the film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but due to unforeseen rights issues for the deleted scenes, the film's new restoration actually ended up being 251 minutes. However, Martin Scorsese (whose Film Foundation helped with the film's restoration), stated that he is helping Leone's children get the rights to the final 24 minutes of deleted scenes to make a complete version of Leone's original 269 minute version. On August 3, 2012, it was reported that the restored version of the film that premiered at the 2012 Cannes film festival has been pulled from circulation pending further restoration work. Plot The film is presented in non-chronological order. While this plot states the film from the 1920s to the '60s the film is largely told through flashbacks from the 1960s. 1920shttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America&action=edit&section=2 edit David "Noodles" Aaronson struggles to survive as a poor street kid in the Jewish ghetto on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in 1920. His gang consists of Patrick "Patsy" Goldberg, Phillip "Cockeye" Stein, and little Dominic. They work for Bugsy, a local hood, until they meet Max Bercovicz and become an independent operation under his and Noodles' leadership. Noodles has a fruitless flirtation with Deborah Gelly (Jennifer Connelly), who aspires to be a dancer and actress. Bugsy attacks the boys and Dominic is shot fatally. Noodles retaliates by stabbing Bugsy to death with a switchblade. Police officers intervene, and Noodles stabs one of them. He is sent to prison, and Max is left in charge on the outside. 1930shttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America&action=edit&section=3 edit Twelve years later, Noodles (now played by Robert De Niro) is released from jail in 1932 and becomes reacquainted with his old gang: Max (James Woods), Patsy (James Hayden) and Cockeye (William Forsythe), who are now major players in the bootlegging industry during Prohibition. After briefly reuniting with other acquaintances such as Deborah (now played by Elizabeth McGovern), her brother Fat Moe (Larry Rapp), who runs the speakeasy, and Peggy (Amy Ryder), the gang is recruited by a Detroit mobster, Joe (Burt Young), through the auspices of a local mobster, Frankie Manoldi (Joe Pesci) to steal a shipment of diamonds from an insurance dealer. Carol (Tuesday Weld), the jeweler's secretary, is in on the job and goads Noodles into raping her during the robbery. During an exchange at an abandoned dockyard, Joe and his henchmen are gunned down in a surprise hit by the gang; Frankie Manoldi had arranged the hit to eliminate the competition from Detroit. Leaving the scene, Noodles argues that Max said nothing to him about killing the mobsters, reminding him that they never planned to work for anybody. This is the first sign of the rift between Noodles and Max, which is one of two central themes of the story: the second being Noodles' doomed relationship with Deborah. The gang becomes involved in Mafia matters, getting into a steel workers' strike on the side of unionist Jimmy Conway O'Donnell (Treat Williams), protecting him against a steel tycoon's thugs. The crew also deals with the corrupt Police Chief (Danny Aiello) by switching the identity of the Chief's newborn son in the maternity ward. Carol becomes reacquainted with the gang and falls for Max. Noodles tries to impress Deborah on an extravagant date, but he is left feeling rejected when she tells him she is leaving the following night for the West Coast where she plans to further her acting career. He rapes her in the back seat of a limousine, and after Deborah leaves, he is left regretting what he has done. Max is eager to advance his gang's position, despite Noodles' objections. After Prohibition is repealed, Max suggests that they rob the New York Federal Reserve Bank, but Noodles sees it as suicidal. He is convinced by Carol to tip off the police about a planned liquor run to keep Max from pulling the bank heist. During a farewell party for Fat Moe's speakeasy, he makes an anonymous phone call to the authorities and is beaten by Max after calling his plans "crazy." Later, Noodles learns that Max, Patsy, and Cockeye are all killed in a gunfight after getting cornered by the police. He is consumed with guilt for having made the phone call. Noodles' new girlfriend Eve (Darlanne Fluegel) is murdered by the Syndicate, and Fat Moe is beaten nearly to death before revealing the traitor's whereabouts. After hiding out in an opium den, Noodles escapes his pursuers. Having retrieved the key to the locker, he makes his way to the gang's money hoard. Noodles is shocked to discover that the money is missing, and he flees to Buffalo, where he lives for decades under an assumed name. 1968http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America&action=edit&section=4 edit In 1968, a gray-haired and world-weary Noodles returns to New York City where he goes to stay with Fat Moe at his restaurant. Noodles shows Moe a letter he received from the local rabbi notifying him that the cemetery where his three friends were buried has been sold for development. The letter offers relatives and friends of the deceased the opportunity to have their remains interred elsewhere. Moe tells Noodles that he got a similar letter on account of his father some eight months previously. Noodles explains that the late delivery of the letter, coupled with the fact that the bodies of Max, Patsy and Cockeye have long since been removed to an exclusive private cemetery, is the reason why he has come back out of hiding. Fat Moe asks: "What's this all mean?" Noodles answers: "It means, 'Noodles, though you've been hiding in the asshole of the world, we found you. We know where you are.' It means, 'Get ready.'" At the mausoleum where his friends have been reburied, Noodles discovers a key hanging on a plaque dedicating the monument to them in his name. It is similar to the one he and his childhood friends shared for the train station locker they used as an informal bank throughout their career as mobsters. When he goes to the station, he finds the locker contains a suitcase full of cash and a note to the effect that it is advance payment on his next job. Noodles goes to see an elderly Carol who is living or working at an institution run by the Bailey Foundation. The establishment looks like a hospital or a home for the aged. Carol tells Noodles that Max triggered his own death as well as the killing of Patsy and Cockeye by opening fire at the police that night. As they talk, Noodles inspects a group photograph from the opening day of the institution where an older Deborah can be seen very clearly sitting, pride of place, in the center of the front row. Carol is not sure who she is, referring to her as a famous actress and the patron of the institution. Noodles visits Deborah in her dressing room where she is taking off her make-up following a performance of Antony and Cleopatra. Deborah becomes agitated as Noodles begins to question her about the politically embattled Secretary Bailey who featured, obliquely, in a sequence of televised news reports earlier. Noodles is impatient as Deborah recites a few details known to just about anyone who reads the papers, challenging her that she has been living with him for years. Noodles mentions he has an invitation to "a party on Long Island" on Saturday night, although it is never clear exactly where or when that invitation was issued. Deborah advises him not to go, becoming frantic when they are interrupted by a knock on the dressing room door. The voice of a young man calls her by name. She asks him to wait, begging Noodles to leave by the back door, to go and not look back. Noodles leaves the way he came in and is shocked to be confronted by a young man bearing a striking resemblance to Max at the same age. Deborah introduces him as Secretary Bailey's son: "His name is David, just like yours." Noodles' final visit is his attendance at Secretary Bailey's party where Secretary Bailey turns out to be none other than Max himself. He is now under investigation for corruption and decides to settle an old debt by hiring Noodles to assassinate him. Upon meeting his old friend after more than thirty years, Noodles learns that the planned Federal Reserve Bank heist was a Syndicate operation, but he politely refuses to kill "Bailey" despite Max's confession that he betrayed him, stole the money and even "stole" his woman. Before leaving, he tells Max that his betrayal was meant to save his life. Max follows him to the road, and as an industrial garbage disposal truck parked there starts up and begins to slowly move down the road, Max appears to follow it and as his feet disappear behind the tires, we hear additional noises coming from the truck (the feet then reappear briefly running with the truck). As the truck passes, Max has disappeared, and in the back of the truck are sharp radius augers designed to move trash or debris into the top of the truck, leaving Max's fate somewhat ambiguous, but implying that he threw himself into the truck to be torn apart by the screws. 1933http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America&action=edit&section=5 edit Noodles goes to an opium den following the loss of his friends. As he settles into his dream, his expression appears to shift from glazed relaxation through a faint glimmer of realisation before cracking into a final, broad grin which is frozen for the end titles. Casthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America&action=edit&section=6 edit Category:1984 films